Cascade Medical Centre
98 Ridgewood Drive, Box 610
Princeton, BC V0X 1W0
Tel: 250-295-4482 Fax: 250-295-4484
Dr. Soutar and Dr. Chowdhury Departure
It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of these two practices effective August 30,2024.
Letters have been mailed with more details and you should expect to receive those in the next couple of days.
Please contact the clinic with any questions or concerns.
Cascade Medical Centre (Princeton) & Ponderosa Primary Care Network (Penticton) are now offering a combined My Way to Health Workshop from Sept 25th – Nov 13th 2024
Date: Wednesdays from10am-12pm for 8 weeks inclusive; Sept 25th-Nov 13th 2024
Hosts: Rebecca Sidow (PT), Erin Traverse (RN), Andrea Archibald (RD) & Katie Fortuna (OT)
Location: Princeton General Hospital, Education & Board Room; Penticton Health Center multi-purpose Room 138
Format: Combined in-person and virtual format between Cascade and Ponderosa PCN Clinics
Overview:
Alberta My Way to Health™ is a simple, positive, and empowering group-based lifestyle program. It is intended for people who want to choose healthy living, lose weight, become more active, and contribute to healthy aging of the brain. Throughout the program, participants learn simple changes in class and set goals to practice the skills throughout the week. Small group discussion and a positive atmosphere foster accountability and learning.
Lifestyle changes help participants prevent and control conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
Patient Testimony:
“Well rounded classes. Helps to find roadblocks and offer solutions”.
“I was impressed that the whole person was addressed, including physical, mental and emotional.”
Post-program Evaluations showed that:
- 80% of respondents found that their health condition improved.
- Average mental and physical functioning improved as measured by the Health Quality of Life Survey (SF-12v2®)
- Over 4600 people have benefitted from the program since 2009.
- 92% of respondents indicated that they had become active either “somewhat” or “to a great extent”
A referral from a medical provider is required to ensure that the participant can participate in 30 minutes of physical activity.
New locum policy
1. Patients will not be advised in advance when there is a locum covering for their regular family physician (with exceptions for pap smears and other intimate exams).
2. Patients may decline to see the locum for their booked appointment. You will be rebooked for the next available non-urgent appointment available. Please be aware this may cause a delay in your care.
3. This policy has been enacted by the physician group after careful consideration. If you have any questions or concerns, please discuss with your family physician. Please be respectful to the front-end staff and the visiting locum when you encounter this situation next.
Rationale:
Our clinic has been experiencing difficulties in recruiting and retaining locum physicians, which then affects our ability to retain our permanent physicians.
In the past, a large number of patients have declined seeing our locums, instead preferring to wait to see their regular family doctor when they return. We understand this desire, but unfortunately it leads to a worsening backlog of patients for the family doctor to see when they return from their break; waitlists are longer, patients are unhappy, and the time off becomes counterproductive. Patients refusing to see locums also makes the locums less likely to return because they are paid by the visit and are unlikely to return if they can explore more lucrative jobs elsewhere.
Having returning locums is a very important part of physician retention and recruitment. Many of the current fulltime physicians working in Princeton were previous locums or medical trainees who visited Princeton. If there are less locums our full time physicians cannot take time off, which leads to burnout and possible loss of these full time physicians.
Our locums are fully qualified physicians who have access to the complete medical record created by your family doctor including clinic visit notes, medications, labs results, investigations, ER visits and specialist consults. A locum can also give your issue “a fresh set of eyes” as they have the benefit of approaching your medical issue anew, possibly picking up on things that have been overlooked or providing different advice which you might find helpful.
Thank you for your understanding.
We are excited to announce that we have been working on a new online booking system that will allow patients to book a telephone visit appointment with their physician. If you require an office visit or you are not yet attached to a GP here at the clinic, please continue to phone and book appointments.
Patients can self-register at https://portal.healthmyself.net/cascademedicalclinic/register/form/Llk.
Once you are registered, log onto https://portal.healthmyself.net/cascademedicalclinic#/ and start booking!
* Please note this booking system does not include locum physicians, therefore if your GP is away, a longer booking time may show, please contact our office for urgent appointments. Patients are still welcome to call our office at 250-295-4482 for an appointment to book either in person or via phone.
Cascade Launches Online Booking System - Health Myself
New Patients
Looking for a family physician? Fill out our Request for Attachment form and return it to the clinic to be put on our waitlist. Patients must live in Princeton, and surrounding area including Hedley residents.
Please provide as much detail as possible on this form, as we are prioritizing patients with high medical needs. This includes patients with chronic illnesses, mental health diagnoses, chronic pain, addictions as well as very elderly and very young people.
Thinking of moving to Princeton? New resident of Princeton? Check out our information page regarding care available, clinic info and recommendations before you move.
Teaching Clinic
Please be advised that we often have medical students, residents and training Nurse Practitioners at our clinic and they may participate in your patient encounter. All trainees work under the supervision and direction of a physician or NP. Please be courteous to our medical trainees – they are the future of healthcare in BC!
To see the latest news, check out our Health News and Resources Page
Or visit our Patient Info page to learn more about clinic
policies & procedures.